This show was one of several reality match-up TV shows that aired in the first half of the Y2K decade. Ostensibly the producers would set up a couple and film their blind date while adding lascivious commentary. "A Dating Story" aired on the The Learning Channel on weekdays and billed itself as a nicer classier version of the blind date program that featured real people. It was produced by Philadelphia's Banyan Prodcutions, producers of "A Wedding Story", and "A Baby Story" as well.The first few seasons would feature the man, the woman, and the matchmaker, plus a voice-over in the beginning introducing the participants.
In the fourth season the show added a hostess; a very pretty blonde named Sabrina Soto who spent time with the man and the woman and gave commentary before and after each commercial break. The daters pretty much became attractive white twentysomethings; dates became untraditional activities like glass-blowing or beer-brewing; and episodes became more contrived with the producers attempting to create friction.
It was on that fourth season that the guy who is typing this comment appeared. I was set up with a smoking vegetarian who didn't like guys who worked in an office, which I do. We had no chemistry. They bought her a dress that they thought I would like, and made me give her a scented juju candle as a gift. Sabrina Soto stated we were both believers in the paranormal--we aren't---and millions of people out there think my idea of a first date is to take a girl to a fortune teller. We were told what to say and do the whole time, and at the end of the episode I walked her to an SUV that wasn't hers which she drove around the block and parked again. Then they drove her home and gave me ten bucks for cab fare and told me to get lost.
The episode ended up airing in early 2004. It was rerun once and then "A Dating Story" was canceled soon thereafter. A few months later I received several phone asking me to sign a still photo release form which I ignored. Finally when the last phone call came the caller got impatient with me and yelled "HELLO?". I hung up on him. TLC still reruns episodes but luckily mine never airs.
To this day, my uncle will still bring up Sabrina Soto, remarking "There was really something between you and that hostess. Why didn't you try and ask her out?" To which I can only say that as far as I can tell Ms Soto moved back to LA after A Dating Story's cancellation to open health food store. The website for that store is down, and I don't know what happened to her after that.
In the fourth season the show added a hostess; a very pretty blonde named Sabrina Soto who spent time with the man and the woman and gave commentary before and after each commercial break. The daters pretty much became attractive white twentysomethings; dates became untraditional activities like glass-blowing or beer-brewing; and episodes became more contrived with the producers attempting to create friction.
It was on that fourth season that the guy who is typing this comment appeared. I was set up with a smoking vegetarian who didn't like guys who worked in an office, which I do. We had no chemistry. They bought her a dress that they thought I would like, and made me give her a scented juju candle as a gift. Sabrina Soto stated we were both believers in the paranormal--we aren't---and millions of people out there think my idea of a first date is to take a girl to a fortune teller. We were told what to say and do the whole time, and at the end of the episode I walked her to an SUV that wasn't hers which she drove around the block and parked again. Then they drove her home and gave me ten bucks for cab fare and told me to get lost.
The episode ended up airing in early 2004. It was rerun once and then "A Dating Story" was canceled soon thereafter. A few months later I received several phone asking me to sign a still photo release form which I ignored. Finally when the last phone call came the caller got impatient with me and yelled "HELLO?". I hung up on him. TLC still reruns episodes but luckily mine never airs.
To this day, my uncle will still bring up Sabrina Soto, remarking "There was really something between you and that hostess. Why didn't you try and ask her out?" To which I can only say that as far as I can tell Ms Soto moved back to LA after A Dating Story's cancellation to open health food store. The website for that store is down, and I don't know what happened to her after that.